Employee Benefits Survey

Employee Benefits in the United States News Release

For release 10:00 A.M. (EDT) TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011 USDL-11-1112
Technical information:
(202) 691-6199 NCSinfo@bls.gov http://www.bls.gov/ebs
Media contact:
(202) 691-5902 PressOffice@bls.gov
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS IN THE UNITED STATES - MARCH 2011
Paid leave benefits continued to be the most widely available benefit offered by employers, with
paid vacations available to 91 percent of full-time workers in private industry in March 2011, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Access to these benefits, however, varied by employee
and establishment characteristics. In private industry, paid vacation benefits were available to
only 37 percent of part-time workers. Paid sick leave was available to 75 percent of full-time
workers and 27 percent of part-time workers. (See chart 1.) Paid vacations were available to 90
percent of workers earning wages in the highest 10th percent of private industry employees and only
to 38 percent of workers in the lowest 10 percent of private industry wage earners. Access to paid
sick leave benefits ranged from 21 percent for the lowest wage category to 87 percent for the highest
wage category. (See chart 2.) These data are from the National Compensation Survey (NCS), which
provides comprehensive measures of compensation cost trends and incidence and provisions of employee
benefit plans.
For unmarried domestic partner benefits, about half the workers in state and local government
have access to survivor benefits, as compared to 7 percent of the workers in private industry,
reflecting in part the difference in the availability of defined benefit plans between these groups.
Thirty-three percent of state and local government workers and 29 percent of private sector workers
have access to health care benefits for unmarried domestic partners of the same sex. Access to
benefits varies by employer and employee characteristics and by whether the unmarried domestic
partner is of the same or opposite sex.
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For the first time, the National Compensation Survey produced data on employer-provided benefits
available to unmarried domestic partners. Two tables show these benefits. Table 7 has information on
survivor benefits in defined benefit retirement plans. Table 8 has data on health care benefits. See
the Technical Note for additional information on unmarried domestic partner definitions and data.
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Additional findings include:
* Sixty-four percent of all private industry employees had access to retirement benefits,
compared with 90 percent of state and local government employees. Eighty-five percent of
state and local government employees actually participated in a retirement plan, compared
with 49 percent of private industry workers. (See table 1.)
* Medical care benefits were available to 69 percent of private industry workers, compared
with 87 percent among state and local government workers. About half of private industry
workers participated in a medical plan, compared with about three-quarters of state and local
government workers. (See table 2.)
* Full-time workers in state and local government had a high rate of access to employer-provided
benefits. Retirement and medical benefits were offered to 99 percent and paid sick leave to 98
percent of full-time workers. By comparison, only 73 percent of full-time employees in private
industry had access to retirement benefits, 85 percent to medical care, and 75 percent to paid
sick leave. (See tables 1, 2, and 6.)
* For single coverage, employers paid 88 percent of the medical care premiums for full-time
state and local government workers and 80 percent of the medical care premiums for full-time
private industry workers. For family coverage, employers paid 71 percent of the medical care
premiums for full-time workers in state and local government and 69 percent in private
industry. (See tables 3 and 4.)
* Paid sick leave was available to approximately two-thirds of workers. Nearly 9 out of 10 state
and local government workers had access, compared with approximately 6 of 10 private industry
workers. (See table 6.)
More information can be obtained by calling (202) 691-6199, sending e-mail to NCSinfo@bls.gov,
or by visiting the BLS Internet site, http://www.bls.gov/ebs/home.htm. Regional information offices,
listed on the Internet site, http://www.bls.gov/bls/regncon.htm, also are available to answer any of
your questions.
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NOTE
More information will be published in early fall, including March 2011 data for civilian,
private industry, and state and local government workers on the incidence and provisions of health
care benefits, retirement benefits, life insurance, short-term and long-term disability benefits,
paid holidays and vacations, and other selected benefits.
In addition, new editions of Program Perspectives will be published featuring the latest
benefits data. Program Perspectives brings together employee benefits information from various
National Compensation Survey publications into one convenient and easy-to-read format. For the
latest benefit publications, see: http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs.
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TECHNICAL NOTE
Data in this release are from the National Compensation Survey (NCS), conducted by the U.S.
Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This release contains March 2011 data on
civilian, private industry, and state and local government workers in the United States. Under the
NCS program, information on the incidence and provision of benefits is published in several stages.
This news release provides data on the incidence of (access to and participation in) selected
benefits and the share of premiums paid by employers and employees for medical care. An extensive
number of tables on the incidence of selected benefits will be available in the annual bulletin to
be published in early fall, 2011. Data on detailed provisions of health insurance in state and
local government for 2011 will be available in 2012. Previous publications containing information
on employee benefits for private industry and State and local government workers are available on
the BLS website http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs.
Calculation details
Averages for occupations within an establishment were used to produce estimates for worker
groups averaging hourly pay within the six earnings percentiles: Lowest 10 percent, lowest 25
percent, second 25 percent, third 25 percent, highest 25 percent, and highest 10 percent. The
percentiles are computed using earnings reported for individual workers in sampled establishment
jobs and their scheduled hours of work. Establishments in the survey may report only individual
worker earnings for each sampled job. For the calculation of percentile estimates, the individual
worker hourly earnings are appropriately weighted and then arrayed from lowest to highest.
The published 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles designate position in the earnings
distribution within each published occupation. At the 50th percentile, the median, half of the
hours are paid the same as or more than the rate shown in the data tables, and half are paid the
same as or less than the rate shown. At the 25th percentile, one-fourth of the hours are paid the
same as or less than the rate shown. At the 75th percentile, one-fourth are paid the same as or more
than the rate shown. The 10th and 90th percentiles follow the same logic. The percentile values
are based on wages published in the bulletin National Compensation Survey: Occupational Earnings in
the United States, 2010 (Bulletin 2753). Values corresponding to the percentiles used in the tables
are as follows:
Characteristics Hourly wage percentiles
10 25 50 (median) 75 90
Civilian workers $8.50 $11.17 $16.73 $26.25 $39.33
Private industry workers $8.25 $10.69 $15.87 $24.81 $37.89
State and local government $11.77 $15.52 $22.27 $33.01 $45.31
The tables on employer and employee medical premiums (tables 3 and 4) include participants in
all medical plans, with calculations for both single and family coverage. The calculations are not
based on actual decisions regarding medical coverage made by employees within the occupations.
Rather, the premium calculations are based on the assumption that all employees in the occupation
have identical coverage.
Unmarried domestic partner benefits
A domestic partnership is usually understood to mean two unrelated, unmarried adults who share
the same household. In order to qualify for domestic partner benefits, an employee may need to
demonstrate that his or her ‘eligible partner’ meets certain criteria set by the employer. The
employer determines who is a domestic partner. Employers are also not required to offer benefits,
regardless of whether or not their State recognizes domestic partners.
Analysis of unmarried domestic partner data on defined benefit survivor benefits must take into
account the percent of workers who have access to defined benefit plans. For example, employees in
private industry have less access to defined benefit plans (20 percent in 2010) than State and local
government employees (84 percent in 2010). As a result, approximately 35 percent of private industry
employees with access to a defined benefit plan have a plan that provides domestic partner benefits,
while the figure in state and local government is 60 percent.
Health care
Health care is a collective term for preventative and protective coverage for the following
measures: medical, dental, vision, and outpatient prescription drug plans. If workers have access
to or participate in at least one of these benefits, they are considered as having access to or
participating in health care.
Medical care
Medical care plans provide services or payments for services rendered in the hospital or by a
qualified medical care provider.
Take-up rates
Take-up rates are the percentage of workers with access to a plan who participate in the plan.
They are computed by using the number of workers participating in a plan divided by the number of
workers with access to the plan, multiplied by 100, and rounded to the nearest one percent. Since
the computation of take-up rates is based on the number of workers collected rather than rounded
percentage estimates, the take-up rates in the tables may not equal the ratio of participation to
access estimates.
Leave benefits for teachers
Primary, secondary, and special education teachers typically have a work schedule of 37 or 38
weeks per year. Because of this work schedule, they are generally not offered vacation or holidays.
In many cases, the time off during winter and spring breaks during the school year is not considered
vacation days for the purposes of this survey.
Survey scope
The March 2011 NCS benefits survey represented about 120 million civilian workers; of this
number, about 101 million were private industry workers and 19 million, state and local government
workers (see Appendix table 2).
Survey response
The March 2011 benefits survey included a sample of 17,585 establishments. The definitions in
Appendix table 1 are as follows:
Responding. The establishment provided information on at least one usable occupation. An
occupation is classified as usable if the following data are present: earnings, occupational
characteristics (full- vs. part-time schedule, union vs. nonunion status, and time vs. incentive
pay type), and work schedule.
Refused or unable to provide data. The establishment did not provide earnings, occupational
characteristics, and work schedule data for any occupation.
Out of business or not in survey scope. The establishment is no longer in operation.
Establishments not in the survey scope include farm and private households, the self-employed, the
Federal government, and locations of an establishment that are not in the sampled area. Also
excluded are establishments with no workers within the survey scope. For example, an establishment
where all the workers are also owners would be excluded.
Obtaining information
For research articles on employee benefits, see the Monthly Labor Review or Compensation and
Working Conditions Online at the BLS Web sites http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/home.htm and
http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/home.htm. For further technical information, see Chapter 8, "National
Compensation Measures," of the BLS Handbook of Methods at: http://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/homch8.pdf
and http://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/homch8_a.htm.

Appendix table 1. Survey establishment response,
National Compensation Survey, March 2011
State and
Establishments Total Private local
industry govern-
ments
Total in sampling
frame(1).............. 5,167,424 4,950,028 217,397
Total in sample..... 17,585 15,566 2,019
Responding........ 10,475 8,727 1,748
Refused or unable
to provide data....... 4,591 4,343 248
Out of business or
not in survey scope... 2,519 2,496 23
1 The list of establishments from which the survey
sample was selected (sampling frame) was developed
from State unemployment insurance reports and is
based on the 2007 North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS). For private
industries, an establishment is usually a single
physical location. For State and local governments,
an establishment is defined as all locations of a
government entity.
NOTE: Because of rounding, sums of individual items
may not equal totals.

Appendix table 2. Number of workers(1)
represented, National Compensation Survey, March
2011
State and
Occupational Civilian Private local
group(2) workers industry govern-
workers ment
workers
All workers........119,726,200 100,764,900 18,961,200
Management,
professional, and
related...........35,035,700 24,576,700 10,459,000
Management,
business, and
financial....... 9,362,500 7,785,200 -
Professional and
related.........25,673,100 16,791,500 8,881,600
Teachers...... 6,190,800 - 4,921,200
Primary,
secondary,
and special
education
school
teachers.... 4,128,500 - 3,602,900
Registered
nurses........ 2,683,500 - -
Service...........26,216,500 22,190,000 4,026,500
Protective
service......... 3,024,800 1,214,300 1,810,400
Sales and office..31,364,800 28,600,200 2,764,600
Sales and
related.........11,452,500 11,303,100 -
Office and
administrative
support.........19,912,300 17,297,100 2,615,200
Natural resources,
construction, and
maintenance....... 9,401,500 8,443,700 957,800
Construction,
extraction,
farming,
fishing, and
forestry........ 4,746,700 4,217,700 -
Installation,
maintenance, and
repair.......... 4,654,800 4,226,000 -
Production,
transportation,
and material
moving............17,707,600 16,954,300 753,300
Production...... 8,534,300 8,416,300 -
Transportation
and material
moving.......... 9,173,300 8,538,000 -
1 The number of workers represented by the
survey are rounded to the nearest 100. Estimates
of the number of workers provide a description of
the size and composition of the labor force
included in the survey. Estimates are not
intended, however, for comparison to other
statistical series to measure employment trends or
levels.
2 The 2000 Standard Occupational Classification
system is used to classify workers.
NOTE: Because of rounding, sums of individual
items may not equal totals. Dashes indicate that
no estimates for this characteristic are provided
in this publication.